10 places you must eat and drink in South Lake Tahoe

The South Shore of Lake Tahoe has long been a ski destination and a boating spot and a place to gamble, but its food and drink haven’t traditionally been a draw.

That’s all changed.

In the last few years, new bars and breweries have begun pouring, wine lists and food festivals have thrived, and a host of restaurants has debuted, some in boutique properties that replaced ticky-tacky motels and motor lodges once occupying exceedingly valuable real estate.

The Bistro restaurant in the Lodge at Edgewood Tahoe offers craft cocktail and wine programs.(Photo: Provided to RGJ Meda)

To mark the start of the 2017 winter season, we’re sharing some highlights from the vibrant food and drink scene on the South Shore (aka Stateline and neighborhing South Lake Tahoe).

Dining down the (South) Shore has never been so delicious.

The bar at the Bistro, the mountain-chic restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner in the $100 million Lodge at Edgewood Tahoe, which opened in summer 2017.

(Photo: Provided to RGJ Media)

EATS

■ The Bistro, sleekly rendered in wood and stone, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Lodge at Edgewood Tahoe, a $100 million, LEED-designed, luxury lakefront spread that opened this past summer.

Worth a trip: duck confit hash in the a.m., a grilled hanger steak sandwich with Gruyère fondue at lunch, herb-crusted game hen emerging from the brick oven for dinner. Afterward, a stroll on the beach.

Among the (sometimes kooky) confections you order online: blueberry French toast doughnuts topped with cinnamon cereal, a Maui Waui studded with diced tropical fruit, and a tutti frutti with fruit cereal and a dollop of lemon pie filling. There’s also a plain Jane cake donut.

■ Izabella Ristorante Italiano lies an easy walk from Heavenly ski resort. The owners of another local Italian restaurant began plating the puttanesca at Izabella in summer 2016.

The starters range from fried polenta with smoked Gouda to classic calamari fritti. There are pastas like lasagna Bolognese and familiar preparations like piccata and saltimobocca. Chicken Izabella is made with organic poultry, artichokes and peppadew peppers.

■ Last winter, two older hotels were merged and renovated to create Hotel Becket, a property across the street from the Heavenly ski resort village.

The hotel’s Ten Crows Restaurant feels especially on-trend because Southern food is having a moment, and Ten Crows does Southern staples like pimiento cheese bites, cheddar grits and smoked meats, with beer, wine and craft cocktails at the bar.

■ Lake Tahoe Aleworx — a freestyle iron cross forms a stylized “x” in the logo — has been busy since it opened this past spring. The taproom offers a rotating selection of about 30 taps: 25 craft beers, plus wine, kombucha, and fizzy foamy nitro coffee with nitrogen added.

The menu at Lake Tahoe Aleworx tempts with salads, small bites like salmon cakes and pita shrimp wraps, and specialty pizzas like a Mexican pie loaded with bacon, chorizo, ham, pepperoni and jalapeños.

■ Revive Coffee & Wine Bar serves drip, espresso, pour over and nitro (nitrogen-added) coffees, along with wines and bottled craft beer. The interior pays homage to Tahoe with a stone fireplace and with a bar fashioned from wood milled on the lake’s East Shore in the 1920s.

Revive also is known for its signature cheese platters serving two to eight. Grab a glass of wine and a platter and relax on the front porch or in the front yard. Lake Tahoe is a short stroll away.

The brewery is small, seven kegs per run, and the tap list constantly changes. The Brewocracy IPA, with a bitter finish, nods toward the bureaucracy involved in opening a brewpub. One menu must: a spicy pulled pork sandwich swaddled in house-ale barbecue sauce.

■ South Lake Brewing Company, founded by South Shore natives, also began the brew earlier this year, near the intersection of U.S. 50 and California 89 at the south end of South Lake Tahoe.

Its current tap list includes four beers named for Tahoe-area trails and alpine lakes, like the Marlette Blonde Ale flecked with honey. Brews inspired by Tahoe’s famed snowfall are set to debut this winter.

The brewery also hosts like Monday night trivia, live music Thursdays, and food trucks Friday and Saturday.